System for automatically operating discharge doors of railway cars



G. B. DOREY April 18, 1967 SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATICALLY OPERATING DISCHARGE DOORS OF RAILWAY CARS 7 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Feb. 17, 1965 April 18, 1967 G. B DOREY SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATICALLY OPERATING DISCHARGE DOORS OF RAILWAY CARS '7 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 17, 1965 April 18, 1967 G. B. DOREY 3 1 S Y 5 T E M F O R A U T O M ATICALLY OPERATING ARGE DOORS OF RA L AY CAR Filed Feb. 1'7, 1965 7 Sheets-Sheet 5 A ril 18, 1967 G. B. DOREY 3,314,558,

SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATICALLY OPERATING DISCHARGE DOORS OF RAILWAY CARS '7 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Feb. 17, 1965 Aprii 18, 1967 Filed Feb. 17, 1965 G. B. DOREY SYSTEM FOR AUTOMA TICALLY OPERATING DISCHARGE DOORS OF RAILWAY CARS 7 Sheets-Sheet 6 g INV NTOR.

A ria 18, 1967 B. DQREY 3,314,55

G. SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATICALLY OPERATING DISCHARGE DOORS OF RAILWAY CARS Filed Feb. 17, 1965 v 7 Sheets-Sheet '7 INVENTOR United States Patent Office 3,314,558 SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATICALLY OPERATING DISCHARGE DOORS OF RAILWAY CARS George B. Dorey, Westmount, Quebec, Canada, as-

signor to Continental Transport Appliances Limited,

Montreal, Quebec, Canada, a corporation of Canada Filed Feb. 17, 1965, Ser'. No. 433,310 3 Claims. (Cl. 214-63) The invention relates to a system for automatically operating car doors of railway cars and relates more particularly to cars having bottom openings for discharge of lading and doors for closing said openings swingly mounted on axes extending transversely to the path of movement of the cars.

The objects of the invention among others are to provide improved means for operating doors of a train of railway cars either in opening or closing operations by the advancing movement of the cars in cooperation with wayside actuating means, to provide door operating shafts with crank means for engagement with wayside ramp means for opening car doors; to provide crank arms at the respective ends of door operating shafts with the respective cranks disposed in spaced angular relation for successive engagement with wayside actuating means whereby partial closure of a discharge opening will be effected by one of the cranks and final closure effected by the other crankand to provide wayside ramps having an underhead inclined approach for lifting engagement with one of the cranks and an overhead approach for hearing down on the crank.

It is a further object of the invention to provide for jolting the doors and loosen residual lading adhering to the doors prior to their being automatically lifted and retained in closed position. The automatic closing of car doors has heretofore been restricted to such free flowing lading as will completely clear itself by gravity from the face of the doors inasmuch as the successful operation of an unattended system of door closure must necessarily depend upon the doors being swept clean of adhering lading. It is therefore an object of the improvement to incorporate features which will condition the doors prior to final closure and to this end provision is made for pendulating the doors and abruptly releasing them to the normal open position thereby jarring loose such lading as might adhere to the doors.

The invention further resides in certain other features and combination of parts such as Will be described and claimed.

For further comprehension of the invention reference may be had to the accompanying drawings wherein the improvements are shown in combination with a railway hopper car of the so-called tank type having centrally placed discharge openings and oppositely swinging doors for closing the openings.

In said drawings FIGURE 1 is a side elevational view of one end of a railway hopper car showing one of the discharge openings with doors in closed position and another discharge opening with doors in opened position, said view also showing wayside actuating ramps in outline.

FIGURE 2 is a vertical sectional view taken through the line 2-2 of FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 3 is a perspective figurative view of a typical arrangement of wayside ramps for actuating the car doors shown in FIGURES 1 and 2.

FIGURE 4 is a longitudinal elevational view on an enlarged scale showing the doors in normal open position and with the lifting ramp in contact with the primary crank.

FIGURE 5 is a view similar to FIGURE 4 except that the overlapping door has been drawn back to its maximum 3,314,558 Patented Apr. 18, 1967 open position by contact between the primary crank and the lifting ramp.

FIGURE 6 is a view similar to FIGURES 4 and 5 except that the primary crank is shown as held in the first stage of its lifting movement and riding on the horizontally disposed extension of the ramp with the secondary crank at the opposite end of the shaft in close proximity to the runway of the overhead ramp.

FIGURE 7 is a view similar to FIGURE 6 showing the overhead ramp in an advanced position of contact with the secondary crank.

FIGURE 8 is a fragmentary view of the structure of FIGURE 7 showing the secondary crank fully depressed by the overhead ramp.

FIGURE 9 is another fragmentary view similar to FIGURE 7 showing the parts in position for initiating opening movement of the doors.

In said drawings the rails on which the car is mounted are indicated at 10-10, the wheels at 11-11 and the trucks are shown at 12. The car as shown is of the tank type having side walls 13-13 sloping inwardly and downwardly to a discharge opening 14 centrally located between the rails. The body bolsters are indicated at 15 and end walls 16 slope downwardly towards the discharge area. The car is divided longitudinally by transverse ridges 17 into a series of discharge openings 18.

The openings 18 are adapted to be closed by oppositely swinging doors 19 and 20 which are pivotally mounted on pivots 21 extending transversely of the car. The doors are preferably of the scoop shaped type with the hinge axes of pivots 21 disposed above the doors and inwardly laterally of the hopper side walls to provide balanced doors.

The doors are preferably arranged to slope downwardly when in closed position and together form a V shaped hopper. The door 19 is formed with an upwardly extending lip 22 adapted to underlie the swinging end of door 20 when the doors are in closed position.

Hinging walls 23 at the end of each door extend upwardly from the plane of the doors and the distal ends of said walls receive the pivots 21 for connection with door supporting brackets 24.

The doors are flanged upwardly at the rear end as at 25 and at the sides as at 30 to provide a three-sided pan shaped structure and the hinging walls 23 overlie the side flanges 30 and are welded thereto to form an integrated structure.

The doors are reinforced on the underside by longitudinally extending members as indicated at 31 and 32 for door 19 and at 33 and 34 for door 20. The longitudinally extending beams are preferably of channel shape and the upper flange 35 of beam 31 of the overlapping door 19 is flanged upwardly at 36 to support and brace the overlapping lip 22. The swinging end of door 20 is similarly reinforced by extending the upper flange 37 of beam 34 to the swinging edge of the door. The swinging ends of the doors are thus formed of a double thickness of plate thereby providing structure well able to withstand corrosion and wear for an extended period of service. The doors are further reinforced by a series of angle shaped members 38.

The doors are operated by means of jackknife type of toggle linkage mechanisms which also maintain the doors in closed position. The mechanisms which are located at each end of the doors each include a radially extending arm means 39 and a link 40. The operating arm means 39 are non-rotatably mounted on an operating shaft 41 which in turn is rotatably mounted in bearings 42 carried by the door 19. The radially extending operating arm means 39 are pivotally connected at 43 with one end of the link 40 and the opposite end of the link is pivotally connected at 44 with the opposite door through the medium of an adjustably mounted eyebolt 45.

The operating arm means 39 and links 40 are arranged to jackknife to an over center folded toggle locked position to maintain the doors in closed position and to straighten out in an over center toggle locked relation to limit opening movement of the doors. The over center knuckling movement of the arm means 39 and links 40 when straightened out to limit opening movement of the doors is arrested by interengaging abutments 46 and 49 formed on the arm means 39 and links 40 respectively.

The shafts 41 are extended well beyond the arm means 39 and each arm carries a fulcrum post 48 on the outer side thereof to accommodate a removable operating bar indicated conventionally at 48a between the said post and the shaft 41 for closing or opening the doors manually.

The doors are swung from open to closed position by a half revolution of the operating shaft 41 which may be effected either manually or automatically by movement of the car in co-operation with wayside actuating means.

To adapt the cars for automatic operation the projecting ends of the operating shaft 41 are fitted with crank arm means as indicated at 49 and 50 respectively. The said respective crank arm means extend radially from the shaft in different angular relation for the purpose of closing the doors in two successive stages as will be described. Each crank arm is fitted with a handle portion in the form of a freely rotatable wheel 51 for riding engagement with wayside actuating inclined ramps as indicated at 52 and 53 respectively. The arms 49 and 50 are preferably angularly spaced to lie approximately 70 degrees apart and with the doors in closed position arm 49 is preferably disposed of slope substantially at an angle of degrees from the rail.

A function of crank arm means 49 is to effect a lift of the overlapped door in co-operation with wayside ramp 52 and also retain the said door in this condition of closure throughout a limited extent of car travel by engagement with a horizontally extending runway 54 as seen in FIGURES 3 and 6. The function of crank arm means is to take over the door raising effort from crank arm means 49 and complete the door closing operation by lifting the overlapping door to closed position through contact with downwardly acting runway 55 of ramp 53 which latter is of the overhead type and operates to exert forward and downward pressure on the said crank arm means 50. This second stage of the door closing operation may be best understood by reference to FIGURE 6 wherein the overlapped door is shown as held in closed position by the horizontally extending runway 54 and the arm 50 is then in a substantially vertical position with its associated wheel type of handle 51 lying in the path of downwardly acting runway 55. The said downwardly acting runway 55 through its contact with wheel 51 of the arm means 50 operates to depress the said arm means 50 and thereby rotate the operating shaft 41 to close the jackknife toggle and thereby completely close and lock the doors.

With the toggle mechanism in an overcenter locked position acting to maintain the doors in closed and locked position the crank arm 50 extends downwardly to lie slightly below a plane and an upwardly sloping runway 56 of a ramp 58 is arranged to engage therewith and force said crank arm 50 upwardly to release the doors by movement of the car.

The doors when in closed position are shown as sloping downwardly to form a V shape hopper structure with the lip 22 of the overlapping door extending upwardly at an angle corresponding substantially to the downward slope of the overlapped door. Such a structure While conducive to the attainment of a leakproof condition has the disadvantage of disposing the upwardly extending lip of the overlapping door at an unfavourable shedding angle when the doors are normally open. To obviate possibility of lading being retained on this lip and to generally free the doors of residual lading the improvement contemplates an arrangement whereby the connected doors are swung back on engagement between the crank 49 and the inclined runways of the wayside ramps thereby bringing the door lip to a substantially vertical position as seen in FIGURE 5.

It will be observed by reference to FIGURE 3 that the pair of spaced opened doors by reason of their interconnection by the straightened and toggle locked arm and link connection are swung backward by the riding action of crank arm 49 on the inclined runway of the wayside ramps until the rear flange 25 of door 19 contacts the underside of the hopper sloping end wall 16.

Upon stoppage of the door swinging movement any further climbing of the wheel 51 'of crank means 49 on the inclined runway of the ramp becomes effective to break the toggle lock of the straightened arm and link connection and rotate the operating shaft 41 to lift the doors towards closed position.

With certain types of sticky lading it is desirable to jar the doors before initiating the final automatic operation and to this end a stub ramp 59 is preferably interposed in the system ahead of the main lifting ramp 52 for the purpose of pendulating the doors and abruptly returning them to normal open position.

' The stub ramp 59 includes a base portion 60 and an inclined runway section 61 on which wheel 51 of crank arm 49 is arranged to ride for only sufficient distance as to effect a partial lift of one of the doors and then overrun the runway and precipitate the doors to normal open position. It will be noted that initial contact between the crank arm and stub ramp operates similarly to the main lifting runway 52 in forcing the overlapping door backwardly to temporarily assume a steeper slope.

The operation and advantages of the improved system may be best understood by considering the sequence of movements involved in one cycle of automatic unloading and subsequent automatic closing of the doors. Assuming the parts positioned as shown at the left hand side of FIGURE 1 and on an enlarged scale in FIGURE 9 with a loaded car moving towards unloading ramp 58, the wheel 51 of crank arm 50 rides on sloping runway 56 and is thereby displaced upwardly with resultant opening of the doors. With the doors in interlocked open position as seen at the right-hand side of FIGURE 1 and on an enlarged scale in FIGURE 4 and upon further unidirectional movement of the car, the wheel 51 of crank arm 49 contacts the inclined runway section of ramp 52 swinging the pair of interconnected doors backwards as seen in FIGURE 5 until the rear flange 25 abuts the underside of the hopper. As the car advances the crank arm 49 is displaced upwardly and the operating arms 39 swing upwardly and bring the overlapped door 20 to closed position. During movement of the door 20 to closed position, the backward pressure imposed on door 19 by the inclined runway prevents movement of said door until the overlapped door is fully closed and the wheel 51 of crank arm 49 moves from the inclined runway to run on horizontal runway 54. The door 20 is then retained in closed position during a limited extent of car travel by reason of support by runway 54 and the secondary arm 50 is then in a substantially vertical position with the crank wheel 51 thereof in the path of downwardly acting runway 55 as seen in FIGURE 7. Further movement of the car effects closing movement of the jackknife toggle mechanism as seen in FIGURES 7 and 8, the latter indicating the toggle locking mechanism in overcenter locked position.

The hold back of door 19 by the inclined runway meeting with the downwardly extending crank arm 49 being effective until the opposite door 20 is fully closed, provides for a high degree of precision in closing sequence which is an essential requirement for successful automation.

What is claimed as new is:

1. In combination, a railway car having an opening for discharge of lading and oppositely swinging doors movable to closed position with their swinging ends in meeting relation for closing the opening and having means for operating the doors and holding them in closed position comprising:

(a) a rotatable shaft extending transversely to the path of movement of the car carried by one of the doors,

(b) radially extending arm means on the opposite ends of the shaft,

(c) linkage connected at one end to the distal end of the radial arm means and connected at the other end with the opposite door,

(d) said arm means and linkage being adapted to fold in over center toggle locked position to maintain the doors in closed position and unfold to an extended position to open the doors,

(e) means for automatically opening the doors by movement of the car including:

(1) crank arm means carried by the shaft,

(2) and wayside actuating ramp means disposed in alignment with the crank means for contacting therewith to rotate the shaft in a toggle releasing direction.

2. The invention set forth in claim 1 wherein:

(a) said crank arm means are disposed at the respective ends of the shaft in spaced angular relation (b) and second wayside actuating ramp means are disposed at the respective sides of the car in alignment with the crank arm means,

(c) one of said second ramp means being disposed to act upwardly on one of said crank means to effect partial closing of the doors by rotation of the shaft,

(d) and the other of said second ramp means being adapted to act downwardly on the other crank means to continue unidirectional rotation of the shaft and effect completion of the door closing operation.

3. The invention set forth in claim 2 wherein:

(a) the respective upwardly and downwardly acting ramp means are spaced from each other lengthwise in the direction of movement of the car and (b) a substantially horizontally disposed runway is positioned intermediate said ramp means to underlie and support the upwardly swinging crank arm means and retain the doors in a partial state of closure for a given length of car travel prior to said crank arm means being acted upon by the downwardly acting ramp means.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 934,860 9/1909 Ullmann 105-290 X 1,294,051 2/1919 Clark 105-283 X 2,348,376 5/1944 Goodwin 105-280 GERALD M. FORLENZA, Primary Examiner.

ROBERT G. SHERIDAN, Examiner- 

1. IN COMBINATION, A RAILWAY CAR HAVING AN OPENING FOR DISCHARGE OF LADING AND OPPOSITELY SWINGING DOORS MOVABLE TO CLOSED POSITION WITH THEIR SWINGING ENDS IN MEETING RELATION FOR CLOSING THE OPENING AND HAVING MEANS FOR OPERATING THE DOORS AND HOLDING THEM IN CLOSED POSITION COMPRISING: (A) A ROTATABLE SHAFT EXTENDING TRANSVERSELY TO THE PATH OF MOVEMENT OF THE CAR CARRIED BY ONE OF THE DOORS, (B) RADIALLY EXTENDING ARM MEANS ON THE OPPOSITE ENDS OF THE SHAFT, (C) LINKAGE CONNECTED AT ONE END TO THE DISTAL END OF THE RADIAL ARM MEANS AND CONNECTED AT THE OTHER END WITH THE OPPOSITE DOOR, (D) SAID ARM MEANS AND LINKAGE BEING ADAPTED TO FOLD IN OVER CENTER TOGGLE LOCKED POSITION TO MAINTAIN THE DOORS IN CLOSED POSITION AND UNFOLD TO AN EXTENDED POSITION TO OPEN THE DOORS, (E) MEANS FOR AUTOMATICALLY OPENING THE DOORS BY MOVEMENT OF THE CAR INCLUDING: (1) CRANK ARM MEANS CARRIED BY THE SHAFT, (2) AND WAYSIDE ACTUATING RAMP MEANS DISPOSED IN ALIGNMENT WITH THE CRANK MEANS FOR CONTACTING THEREWITH TO ROTATE THE SHAFT IN A TOGGLE RELEASING DIRECTION. 